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Did you ever play football?
I applauded my own violence on the field. But off the field I conducted myself somewhat respectfully. Granted I wasn't good enough to get away with anything.
I don't think your argument holds water. Again, maybe Ben didn't do anything and he didn't for 99.99% of the night. We know that. But if that .01% was bad, then he should be punished and I won't feel at all bad because I root for violence on the field.

I played football, baseball, and basketball in high school. And I had a bit of a temper back then.

I quit playing football in 9th grade after breaking my hand and focused on baseball which I was much better at.

I quit playing sports in college, didn't have time. I worked 40 hours a week and finished school in 3 years.

Funny thing, my temper went away in college and I'm just happy now and optimistic about everything.

I do think it's hard to turn on and off violence. And I think a lot of coaches are really hard on players and push them to be even more violent.

There's a lot of yelling, arrogance, violence, etc. in sports. Very few people are good coaches imho. And winning is held in higher esteem than sportsmanship.

There's good and bad in sports imho. Just like the rest of life.

But when you are elite, you essentially get paid to be violent.

And it's hard to turn some of that off off the field.

There are exceptions like yourself, but by and large most guys are the same on and off the field.

Re: Did we make a deal with the Devil?

but by and large most guys are the same on and off the field.

This is a huge generalization that isn't backed by the facts. While there are certainly players who do not know how to turn it off when the leave the field; I think you only need look to the Steelers to see a multitude of men who would be considered 'violent' on the field but have never shown proclivities towards violence off the field. In fact they were known to be nice, family men, some of faith - Meen Joe Green, Rod Woodson, Aaron Smith, Troy Polamalu, etc.

Did you ever play football?
I applauded my own violence on the field. But off the field I conducted myself somewhat respectfully. Granted I wasn't good enough to get away with anything.
I don't think your argument holds water. Again, maybe Ben didn't do anything and he didn't for 99.99% of the night. We know that. But if that .01% was bad, then he should be punished and I won't feel at all bad because I root for violence on the field.

I played football, baseball, and basketball in high school. And I had a bit of a temper back then.

I quit playing football in 9th grade after breaking my hand and focused on baseball which I was much better at.

I quit playing sports in college, didn't have time. I worked 40 hours a week and finished school in 3 years.

Funny thing, my temper went away in college and I'm just happy now and optimistic about everything.

I do think it's hard to turn on and off violence. And I think a lot of coaches are really hard on players and push them to be even more violent.

There's a lot of yelling, arrogance, violence, etc. in sports. Very few people are good coaches imho. And winning is held in higher esteem than sportsmanship.

There's good and bad in sports imho. Just like the rest of life.

But when you are elite, you essentially get paid to be violent.

And it's hard to turn some of that off off the field.

There are exceptions like yourself, but by and large most guys are the same on and off the field.

Hockey players are as violent if not moreso than football players (punching someone in the face with your bare knuckles gets you only a 5 minute penalty on the rink...such an infraction is slightly more severely punished in football...ask LeGarrette Blount).

But you rarely ever hear about off-the-field antics among hockey players. Perhaps the fact that most of them are Canadian makes them seemingly inherently more polite fellows than football players who are overwhelmingly from the U. S. of A.

Perhaps I'm wrong, though, and we just don't hear about the misdeeds of hockey players because ESPN does not cover the NHL like CBC and TSN does (I may get lambasted by reports of boorish behavior from hockey players in the Great White North from the likes of Steeler Fan in T.O. and Mel Blount's G).

But my general opinion of hockey players is that they tend to be humble gentlemen off the ice, while football players tend to be prima donna douchebags with a sense of entitlement off the field (not everyone, of course...to wit, Troy Polamalu seems to be the epitome of a humble gentleman, while Sean Avery seems like the ultimate horse's @$$).

Re: Did we make a deal with the Devil?

I was more trying to say that these violent type players are just that in life too. I don't think football should be blamed and frankly, they might have kept these guys out of trouble a bit longer and many have matured in football while avoiding the streets.

I don't want to pick on any one player unfairly and this is a stereotype of these two players who's background and upbringing I am not overly familiar with. But let's say Harrison and Porter, who have shown exceptional football violence for the Steelers, had never played football and were from a mean street. They may be already in jail instead of skirting disaster while playing football. Maybe football allowed them to get into their late 20s unscathed from the streets. And now though occasional a problem in society, they aren't the total scourge as they have matured a bit. If we can get them to their 30s, maybe they will tire and only rarely do something unacceptable.

Re: Did we make a deal with the Devil?

Originally Posted by aggiebones

I was more trying to say that these violent type players are just that in life too. I don't think football should be blamed and frankly, they might have kept these guys out of trouble a bit longer and many have matured in football while avoiding the streets.

I don't want to pick on any one player unfairly and this is a stereotype of these two players who's background and upbringing I am not overly familiar with. But let's say Harrison and Porter, who have shown exceptional football violence for the Steelers, had never played football and were from a mean street. They may be already in jail instead of skirting disaster while playing football. Maybe football allowed them to get into their late 20s unscathed from the streets. And now though occasional a problem in society, they aren't the total scourge as they have matured a bit. If we can get them to their 30s, maybe they will tire and only rarely do something unacceptable.

Maybe football is keeping them from being complete disasters.

I think it's a personal decision to go to jail or not. Football may occupy more of their time but in the end those who have no self respect or refuse to follow the rules find creative ways to get in trouble...

and this is with millions in their pocket and the world at their feet.

Bell was fishwhacked, and it was obvious. Where there is piss, there is fire. - Moonie

Re: Did we make a deal with the Devil?

Originally Posted by aggiebones

Originally Posted by feltdizz

Aggie I wasn't implying you would be ok with a priest being a perv. I think you said something like not "being able to imagine your priest being a pedophile." If it happened I would expect disgust and frustration... Unfortunately there ARE people who make excuses after the fact or blame everyone but the perpetrator.

It's like baseball and Steroids... people trashed Bonds and said if it was their player or team they wouldn't tolerate it or they would boycott baseball. Then Canseco wrote a book and dropped name after name and a few high profile names on the list leaked and all of a sudden the steroid era was OK...

I love the Steelers but I'm not defending behavior or making excuses for stupd decisions the players make off the field.

Frankly, most people came down harder on Bonds because he was a gigantic douche. If it was any other player from that era, say Bonilla, Drabek or Vanslyke, people wouldn't have been as hard.
He also has been hitting roids VERY hard and denying it while giving everyone the finger. Most just duck and cover, he's been an overly defiant fraud. And people tend not to like that.
...And the steroids era is not OK by me. I am one of those that says keep them all out of the Hall. ie Screw them.

I'm not defending or cosigning Bonds and his roid use. Still not sure if he ever failed a test or was caught red handed..

my point is fans in Boston and NY who swore up in down they wouldn't cheer for a cheater did a complete 180 when their players or team was exposed as cheats.

Bell was fishwhacked, and it was obvious. Where there is piss, there is fire. - Moonie